Falcone Steers Village Into New Phase

The years of explosive growth had passed by the time Richard Falcone took over the reins of Northbrook`s village government.

``My predecessors were preoccupied with growth issues and expansion of village boundaries,`` says Falcone, 47, village president since 1985.

``When I came to office, Northbrook already had adequate schools and parks. Large vacant land parcels had become almost nonexistent within village boundaries. As the building trend began to wane, we found a lot of what had been considered newer parts of the village were turning older. And the old area of town was aging.

``My goal as village president has been to provide an atmosphere that would help what I see as a maturing community enter a new phase of its life.`` Falcone, who moved to Northbrook from Connecticut in 1972, came to office with a good understanding of those growth years.

In 1976, he was elected to the board of Northbrook Elementary School District 27, where he served two one-year terms as the board`s representative to the village`s plan commission, grappling with zoning and planning issues.

``We were responsible for the future direction of the village. It was an advisory position where residents could have a voice in deciding what the village should become,`` Falcone says.

In 1978, Falcone was asked to fill an unexpired term as a village trustee. He agreed, and then in 1979 he won a four-year term. In 1985, he decided to run for village president.

The usually uncontested election became a race when the caucus committee recommended that Falcone be the caucus candidate. The incumbent president challenged that choice at a town meeting and garnered enough votes to become the caucus candidate. Rather than drop out of the race, Falcone chose to run as an independent in the April, 1985, election.

``It was the first real election for village president in 25 years,``

Falcone says.

``I won,`` he says, adding: ``At least I think I did. Some weeks, with all the time involved, I wonder.``

One of Falcone`s campaign promises was to leave the daily operation of the village government to the full-time village manager.

``My job is part-time, with no salary,`` he says. ``I see the village board as the legislative arm of local government. The board sets policies, draws boundaries for the village manager. But we do not manage the village on a day-by-day basis.

``If a citizen brings a complaint to a board member, we bring it to the attention of the village manager. I do not maintain an office in the village hall, and I don`t hold office hours. If the village manager and I need to communicate, he or I call each other.``

On the other hand, Falcone says, he does not hesitate to become involved in village issues that he feels pertain to his areas of responsibility.

``Dick has lived up to his campaign promise regarding the daily operation of the village,`` says Forrest Schneider, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Lane Industries Inc., a Northbrook-based firm.

``He knows when to get involved and when to stand back and let the government work. He believes in letting the professional manager run the daily operation while he leads the board in setting strategic goals and plans,``

Schneider says.

One of those strategic plans is rehabbing the village`s aging infrastructure.

``We`ve gone way out in capital expenditures for sewer rehab and a cross- town water main that was built last year,`` Falcone says. ``We also have embarked on an expensive program of resurfacing our streets.``

Another accomplishment in which Falcone takes pride is maintaining the level of village services at a time when state and federal funding cutbacks are presenting a critical problem for suburban governments.

``To do this, we have increased the village share of residents` property tax bills. It`s gratifying to have a community willing to dig a little deeper into their pockets to provide what they feel is appropriate for the whole community,`` he says.

Looking ahead, Falcone says he believes that the village board must exert leadership in creating an atmosphere conducive to balancing the village`s residential and commercial character.

``Our residential composition is 50.5 percent. Our commercial segment is 49.5 percent. While Northbrook is known as a community with lovely homes, we also have hidden away a very nice commercial segment that provides a generous contribution to our revenues,`` Falcone says.

That commercial segment also generates traffic problems, however.

``A philosophy I have espoused is that we should resolve problems caused by traffic generated in Northbrook, which stays in Northbrook. But I don`t believe we should widen our streets for the convenience of those passing through,`` he says.